The timing of the Challenger Trophy, to be staged at
Chennai from Oct. 1-4 is somewhat odd in that the team
for next month's Champions Trophy has already been
picked.

The tournament is an unusual mix of young and old and
pits three teams against each other in an event in
which individual performances has always carried more
weight than the team's show.

Last year's event at Mohali brought a number of young
talents into the national spotlight. S. Sreesanth,
Piyush Chawla and Robin Uthappa all made their mark
and entered the international fray as a result
The selectors have this time too decided to test out a
bunch on newcomers.

Rahul Dravid is captain of the India Blue side while
Venugopal Rao and Mohammad Kaif will lead the India
Red and Green respectively. Under-19 stars like Tanmay
Srivastava and Rohit Sharma will get a chance to
compete against the cream of India's cricketing
talent. And as always, the comeback chances of Saurav
Ganguly 'playing under the leadership of Mohammed
Kaif' will be the topic of much debate.

Sachin Tendulkar is part of the Blue team but will
miss the opening match as he has asked for a bit of
rest.